In A Nutshell Review: Japanese Breakfast – “Soft Sounds From Another Planet”

Who: Japanese Breakfast is the solo project of Michelle Zauner of Little Big League. She’s released two albums under the Japanese Breakfast moniker entitled Psychopomp in 2016 and her latest Soft Sounds From Another Earth.

Sound: I have to say that Michelle Zauner has one hell of a solo project. It’s music that doesn’t even sound like a solo project. Zauner takes wide open lush sounds of shoegaze to mix with dancy synths, and interesting indie rock.

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Final Take: I really hate that I let this one linger as long as I have; it’s really an to album hear. While it can be somewhat melancholy, Soft Sounds From Another Planet comforts and caresses like a nice warm blanket.

Soft Sounds From Another Planet shows Zauner creating weightless music that’s light effort with maximum impact. “Boyish” is a smooth crescendo of beautiful choruses and a lightly feathered down slopes. “Road Head” showcases this in spades with a restless night sky bass line, a littler dipper dabbed guitar lead, and a comet synth that flutters up and down. This drives Zauner’s point home, as this album is inspired by the cosmos and our lives on Earth in relation to it.

I really only mention two songs because I don’t want to ruin the surprise. It’s been one hell of a year for music with an acclaimed album arriving seemingly once a week, and Zauner has come out of nowhere deserving equal praise. Japanese Breakfast’s Soft Sounds From Another Planet is a beautiful and tight introspective on how Zauner views life, love, and the strange. It’s an album that will be seen on my end of year list.

I’m Christopher Tahy and I’ve always had rock in my life. I was brought up on Green Day, Billy Idol, Talking Heads, R.E.M, and Dayton’s 104.7 WTUE was always playing in the car — one of the first discs I remember purchasing was a Queen live set. Now that I’m older and have my own family, I find myself diving deeper into the rock music I’ve always loved so much, especially the typical guitar heroes (Gilmour, Hendrix, Page, etc.). My modest (but growing) vinyl collection spans genres and generations, and I’m a guitarist myself at heart. I’m also lucky enough to know the rockers that I know and have great friendships with many musicians in the Dayton music scene and beyond.

In addition to contributing to Rocknuts.net, I also write reviews and vinyl-focused articles for the website I owe a lot of gratitude to, TheFireNote.com. You can reach me at christopher@rocknuts.net.